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October 28, 2004

Voting in America: Reflections of an American Abroad

. . . Or, Sometimes it Takes a Foreigner to Teach You What it Means to be an American

NOTE: This was submitted to Documenting Democracy by Donna Messner, a PhD candidate in the sciences from Virginia who is currently studying at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In her e-mail to me, she says that the PIPA Report was the last straw and that led to her writing this passionate piece. Please send this link to others to read, especially your Republican friends who so desparately need to understand what is at stake. Thanks, Donna, for submitting this.

I had only been in Britain a couple of weeks before I was confronted with the question that would become a recurrent theme for my first year here. "Why do Americans vote for him? I mean-I don't want to offend you. We know Americans aren't stupid. But why can't they see through him? Are they naive?" An Austrian woman voiced the question while several others-among them British, Norwegian, Belgian, Finnish, and Korean-gathered around to listen, nodding in agreement.

The "him," of course, was George W. Bush. My classmates, colleagues, and teachers had barely gotten beyond the pleasantries before they began pressing me to explain my country and its actions. They were eager to talk about it, seemingly gratified to have among them an American to whom they could put the question directly.

Significantly, what they looked for was not retrospective justifications for war or for other American policies. Instead they sought an explanation for the choice millions of individual Americans make when they go into the privacy of the balloting booth to cast their votes.

(more below)

When first confronted with the question of why people would vote for Bush, I stammered and sputtered. "No, Americans certainly aren't stupid. Perhaps they are a bit trusting.... It's complicated."

Over the next few months I spent many hours explaining American domestic politics, describing what I saw as an unlikely potpourri of single-issue voters who tend vote Republican. To my foreign colleagues, these laundry lists of domestic issues created a caricature of the typical Republican voter as someone who walks around with an assault weapon in one hand and a Bible in the other, exhorting people to abide by God's (fundamentalist) laws and accept His tax cuts or suffer the death penalty.

I knew this caricature wasn't a fair one. I have friends at home who I know didn't benefit from Bush tax cuts, who are knowledgeable about the environment and want strong international allies, who do believe in gun rights but don't particularly want assault weapons on the streets, and who have religious faith but are not intolerant or narrow in their view of others, who nevertheless plan to vote for Bush. Trying to explain this seeming contradiction was vexing.

One night while sitting at a pub with some Swedish friends, Jan and Jenny, the conversation once again turned to Bush voters. Jan, who had proven to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Bush administration policies and actions around the world, was pressing me on what Americans thought of Bush's recent spurning of multiple international agreements-backing out of the Kyoto treaty, refusing to participate in an international biological weapons ban, repudiating a longstanding anti-ballistic missile treaty with Russia.

"Do the people who vote for Bush approve of these actions?" he asked.

I threw up my hands in frustration, saying, "Most Americans don't choose presidents over stuff like that! A lot of people probably don't even know he did those things!"

My Swedish friends were stunned. "They don't know he did those things?" they asked in disbelief.

"Well, for many of them probably not," I explained. "Usually, American elections hinge on domestic issues. And anyway," I added, "a lot of people just vote out of habit or tradition. They think, 'I am Republican. Therefore I vote Republican. If I do otherwise then...well, what would people in my circle think? How could I still call myself Republican?'"

I could see the horror on Jan and Jenny's faces. They found this description of many Americans' voting habits alarming.

Jenny, knotting her hands in frustration, finally said, "We feel so helpless. Whoever is the president of the United States has such a huge impact on the rest of the world. And the people who vote for him don't even know that-they aren't even thinking about it when they go to vote. That's really scary."

I had never thought about our presidential elections this way. It gave me pause, as I hope it would all Americans. Jan and Jenny aren't alone. Their attitude is shared by most of the global citizens I've met here.

A few months after this encounter, my husband and I decided to visit Jan and Jenny in Sweden. At one point during our visit, I stopped to get money from a cash machine. When I pulled out my wallet to get the ATM card, my passport came out with it. Jan drew in a breath at the sight of it. This friend who can level a passionate, devastating critique of Bush administration policies in a few pointed sentences saw the passport and said expectantly, "Wow. An American passport. Can I see it?"

I passed it to him with a mixture of puzzlement and welling pride. He held it respectfully, almost reverently, delicately fingering the gold eagle inscribed on the deep blue cover.

Not knowing what to say I awkwardly joked, "Hey, that passport's worth a lot of money!"

If he heard me, he didn't laugh. Still fingering the eagle, he said, "It's such a symbol of power...such a symbol in the world." He looked at me with earnest seriousness, searching for the words to articulate his thought. "If you have an American passport, you have more power than any other citizen in the world."

I was taken aback. Americans, all of us, need to have the mirror held up to us the way my friend did for me. He is critical of the U.S. right now not out of simple jealousy for Swedish national interests, as many people might assume, but because the United States stands for something in the world that he respects-something, he fears, we are in the process of destroying.

Every day in our country, especially now with elections approaching, the phrase "most powerful nation in the world" gets thrown about like so much rhetorical candy in cynical attempts to manipulate patriotic sentiments. As much as we say it, it seems unreal-just another campaign slogan. Meanwhile, citizens of the rest of the world know it in a profound and meaningful way. They reap benefits if we behave wisely and they bear the consequences when we behave irresponsibly.

And here are we, the Americans, the ones who cast the votes, all of us, busy, busy, busy. Come home from work, pick up the kids, throw some food in the microwave. Make sure the kids' homework is done. And then go to our night job, or night classes, or work on the proposal due at work the next day. My job is riding on this. Got to nail this one....
It's easy to get lost in the details, go on autopilot, and do the same when we go to vote-go on autopilot.

Meanwhile, the world trembles-not our enemies, but our allies. I am living and working and studying among people who are our best allies and strongest friends in the world. And right now we scare them! It's hard for Americans to imagine, but it's true. Our best friends in the world are frightened to contemplate what havoc another four years of this administration might reap on the world.

With great power comes great responsibility. That's a theme we often hear, but only as applied to our leaders. Think again. The more fundamental power and greatest responsibility lie with those who choose the leaders-it lies with us, the voters. We need to recognize our power, accept our responsibility, and go to the voting booth with the same sense of awe my friend used to describe the symbol of the American passport.

A world of concerned citizens is watching. What will we do?

Posted by amahler at October 28, 2004 09:48 AM

Comments

Linked through from Daily Kos.

God bless Ms. Messner for saying what we, in the great unwashed world out there of your allies (the UK in my case), feel.

I lit a candle for Senator Kerry in our local Anglican Church (St. James's on Picaddilly).

Posted by: john at October 28, 2004 11:14 AM

I did a cross-post to DailyKOS and the discussion continues there as well:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/28/104745/86

- Aaron

Posted by: Aaron at October 28, 2004 12:28 PM